by Kenneth Bell

Created on: September 22, 2007

If you want to go shopping in Mexico then you just have to be in Mexico City. Especially for the tourist souvenirs that you plan to take home - Mexico City is where all that stuff just happens to be made, so you can get it at a fraction of the price that you will pay in the provinces.

Let me give you some tips for a good day's shopping. We are going to look for computer software, perfume and those tourist souvenirs, and I'll tell you how to buy everything you could ever need in one afternoon.

Computer Software

Take the metro to Bellas Artes. When you leave the station, orient yourself by looking for the Latin-American Tower - then walk towards the tower and you are on Eje Central. Along both sides of that avenue you will find stall after stall selling all the software that you will ever need, and all at ridiculously low prices. Walk past the tower and just after you cross a street called Salvador, you will see on your left a giant covered market named la Plaza de la Tecnologa. Here you can buy just about all the hardware that your computer will ever desire, and at rock bottom prices to boot. Staying on the street, just outside the plaza, that is where most of the software merchants are to be found. You just can't miss them.

Most of the stalls have a laptop computer on them so you can check whatever it is you are thinking of buying before you hand your money over. Amazingly enough, the stall holders even give you a guarantee, so if whatever you buy doesn't work they will change it for you. If you have a laptop with you, they will install the software there and then and make sure that everything is running smoothly. These guys are experts at what they do.

Prices are fairly standard for the software. A CD-Rom costs US$5/2.50 per disk and if the software is on a DVD the price is US$10/5.00. Computer games vary in price, it all depends on what they think that they can get out of you. Expect to pay no more than US$20/10.00, however.

The games work on what is called a crack - and you really have to be a teenager to understand concepts like this. Not to worry, the vendor will explain how to load the game so that your son doesn't need to roll his eyes in exasperation at his very old, and very out of date, dad. Software tends to work on a "keygen". Basically you click on that file and a serial number is generated by it. If the software doesn't accept the number, repeat the process. I have never had any problems with software like this and my son is more than happy with his

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